Fill My Cup (Renewed)

1/20/2018:  This post was originally written on 1/2/2013.  I wish my poinsettias still looked like these...long gone from various years of frosts and freezes...and I wish I still had that cute little cup bird feeder that a friend had given me for Christmas that year, but it met with an unfortunate accident...I keep meaning to make another one like it...maybe this year? But the message below...that's what I wanted to share with you...it just blessed me as I re-read it and thought it was worth renewing for sharing again today.  Sometimes I just run out of words and new things to say, and God takes me back to the beginning and reminds me where I came from...and how far I've come...Thank you, Jesus!!

Original Post: 1/2/2013:

"I will take up the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord."

Psalm 116:13

When I was a young woman fresh out of high school I had the opportunity to serve as a counselor at our church youth camp.  I spent the whole summer there...trying to become a guide or role model for younger teenaged girls when I was barely a year or two older than they were...and not a whole lot more experienced in the ways of the world or the Lord. I still had so much to learn...and it seemed as though that summer was just the beginning of my real journey into things of the Spirit. 

One memory that has stood out in my heart and mind ever since that summer was a song that became our theme song.  We would sing it at local churches on the weekend in between camps...and it's message carried over into my own personal life and walk with the Lord.  To this day, some 45  50!!!!  (in 2018) years later (Oh my goodness, can it be??? ) this song still evokes memories of that summer...primarily memories of when I fully began to understand what it meant to commit my heart and life to Christ. That summer was the beginning of a life time of service and growth...still growing today.  

Here it is...perhaps it will spark some memories or thoughts of commitment in your heart and mind as well:

"Like the woman at the well I was seeking

For things that could not satisfy;

And then I heard my Savior speaking:

'Draw from My well that never shall run dry.'

Chorus:

Fill my cup, Lord,

I lift it up, Lord!

Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;

Bread of heaven,

Feed me 'til I want no more--

Fill my cup, fill it up

and make me whole!"

There are millions in this world who are craving

The pleasure earthly things afford;

But none can match the wondrous treasure

That I find in Jesus Christ my Lord.

(Chorus)

So, my brother (sister!), if the things this world gave you

Leave hungers that won't pass away,

My blessed Lord will come and save you,

If you kneel to Him and humbly pray:

Chorus:

Fill my cup, Lord,

I lift it up, Lord!

Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;

Bread of heaven,

Feed me 'til I want no more--

Fill my cup, fill it up

and make me whole!"

"Fill My Cup, Lord", by Richard Blanchard, 1959.

My "One Word" and theme for 2013 is  (was):

“presence”

Seeking god’s

Presence

In the ordinary

And

Extraordinary

Places of my life

In 2013

On this 2nd day of the new year, I felt God's PRESENCE in looking at this cup that was a gift to me at Christmas...meant to be a little bird feeder...but it reminded me of holding up my cup to the Lord and asking Him to fill it with Himself.  That is how I want to start the New Year...filled with His divine  “Presence”.  How about you?  Want to join me on this extraordinary journey into the PRESENCE of Christ?  Let's go.   Lift your cup up to Him...He will fill it with His love, His Spirit, and His Presence. What a marvelous way to begin anew.

"Fill My Cup, Lord!" 
John 4:7-29







Are You Running in the Wrong Direction?

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fvodpod.com%2Fwatch%2F117569-casting-crowns-does-anybody-hear-her&h=8de36

The above link will take you to a video of a Casting Crowns song entitled, "Does Anybody Hear Her?"...
I was struck by this song yesterday morning on my way to work...it was playing on my radio just as I was pulling up to my place of employment, which  happens to be a church with a most imposing and glorious steeple that towers over the city and looks down upon a whole community of lost and lonely people.  I thought to myself, "Wow, what a song to hear just as I crested the hill where I could see the top of that steeple spiraling up toward the heavens!"  Then I thought about all the lost and lonely people that I pass by every single day....even though it is a beautiful, historic, charming southern victorian section of the city, there are many, many hurting, homeless, lost people all around us.  I see one very thin woman carrying her large shopping bag full of her life's treasures, always wearing a long raincoat as she walks to and fro to where? From where? I don't know.  We have many needy people stopping in our church on a regular basis for assistance with their light bills, rent, (if they have a place to live), gas for their vehicle (if they are fortunate enought to have one) so they can get wherever they need to go, and many even asking for Greyhound Bus Tickets to get them back home to a safe haven (hopefully). 

Thankfully our Pastors are cognizant of the even greater needs many of these people have for words of hope and encouragement, exhortation, and perhaps even counsel on how to come to Christ...the Only answer for ALL their needs. That's the real need of their hearts... they need Jesus.  Oh yes, I know they need food, shelter, clothes, gas, and all the other necessities of life...I'm not so "heavenly minded" that I can't see their earthly needs.  But it is so important to give these people more than just things...they need hope for a way out of their deep despair...they need light for the darkness in their hearts and minds, they need power from on High to pull out of the deep pits into which many have fallen and feel hopelessly trapped.  They need to drink from the well of everlasting life...so they will never thirst again...like that woman at the well, who met Jesus there, and He said to her,

"If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 

and when He offered her the gift of everlasting water, she said,

"Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw..." (See John 4:1-30)

When her eyes were opened to the truth, she realized that Jesus was the Messiah, and even though her sins were great and her problems were many, she believed, and went and brought many others to Him so that they too might drink of that living water.  I believe that woman's life was changed at that very moment...I have a feeling she found a new freedom in Christ that she had never known before...and she couldn't wait to share it with others. I would love to have followed that woman around after her encounter with Christ, to watch and see exactly how God was working in her and through her in ways she never had imagined possible before that meeting.

Have you been to the well of living water?  Have you drank from it's depth of compassion, strength, and power?  Have you shared that with anyone else?  Or are you still running in the wrong direction?

Lord, I pray for all the "lost and lonely people" around me right now...right in the shadow of our steeple.  Open my eyes, Lord, to see them as You see them.  I've already drank from that living water...help me to run and tell others the good news...The Messiah has come! He is here with us right now...living in us in a fountain that is overflowing with eternal life...with power to live both now and forever.  Thank you, Dear Jesus, for the hope that is in me.  Help me to spread the news. Amen.